A weekly thread about the past
Another week where life got in the way and I didn’t have time to prepare as detailed a thread as you like. Thrill, though, as today is the 92nd anniversary of the invention of sliced bread by Otto Rohwedder, ensuring … Continue reading The Greatest History Thread Since Sliced Bread
On this day, one hundred years ago, former President William H. Taft was nominated and confirmed as the Chief Justice of the United States, becoming the first and (thus far) only person to hold both offices. Taft today is primarily … Continue reading The June 30 Chief Justice William H. Taft History Thread
On June 23rd, 1972, Richard Nixon and his chief of staff, H.R. Haldeman, met to discuss the ongoing Watergate scandal. Much of their conversation involved the FBI’s investigation of the break-in (which had occurred six days earlier), and the President … Continue reading The Smoking History Thread
On June 19, 1954, Senator Lester C. Hunt of Wyoming walked into the Capitol Building with his arms full of boxes and papers. A Capitol police officer recognized Hunt and offered his assistance; Hunt handed the officer a .22 caliber … Continue reading History Thread: Nightmare in Lavender
Today’s History Thread marks the anniversary of Joseph McCarthy’s humiliation at the Army-McCarthy hearings. The present author has written about the Red Scare several times in the past, but has only glancingly touched on Tailgunner Joe. McCarthy enjoyed a four … Continue reading The History Thread Has No Sense of Decency
I am not in the head space right now for an in-depth write up of anything, least of all what I’d planned to write about today (eg. the Tulsa Riots of 1921), so enjoy a scream and post whatever you … Continue reading History Thread Screams into the Void
Welcome to this week’s History Thread! I wanted to do something more lighthearted this week (well, a little more lighthearted, it’s still war-adjacent) so I discovered that tomorrow is the birthday of Old Abe, the United States Army’s most famous … Continue reading Old Abe’s History Thread
On May 12th, 1215, English barons rose in rebellion against their king, the John made famous by Robin Hood legends and “The Lion in Winter.” Rebellions against English kings happened all the time, but this was the first occurrence involving … Continue reading A History Thread
Yesterday was the 50th anniversary of the Kent State shooting, one of the most traumatic moments of the Vietnam War era. I’ve previously written around it (writing articles on Nixon’s decision to invade Cambodia and the backlash to the shooting … Continue reading The Kent State History Thread
Today’s History Thread remembers the April 28, 1945 execution of Benito Mussolini and his mistress, Claretta Petacci. By now WWII was nearly over in Europe; Hitler’s Thousand Year Reich had been reduced to a few bombed-out neighborhoods in Berlin, his … Continue reading This History Thread Kills Fascists
This week’s History Thread looks at the most notorious photographic hoax of the 20th Century: the Surgeon’s Photograph of the Loch Ness Monster. The Monster made its modern debut in 1933, with a burst of sightings that were eagerly covered … Continue reading The Hoaxed History Thread
Looking over today’s list of events, April 14th is a remarkably grim day in human history. The sinking of the Titanic in 1912 is the most famous, but it has stiff competition from a variety of events, including the assassination … Continue reading The Doom-Laden History Thread
Threw this together at the last minute so no interesting literary anecdotes to share. It’s the anniversary, among other things, of the second day of the Battle of Shiloh hence the image above. Continue reading The Last-Second History Thread
It’s catastrophic because it’s a last minute thread, and because it deals with catastrophe. When the Romans suffered terrible defeat upon terrible defeat at the hands of Hannibal, they went looking for what went wrong. After Trasimene, it was obvious … Continue reading The Catastrophic History Thread
Welcome to the History Thread! I didn’t have a chance to prepare a literary article this week, but today is the anniversary of a famous World War II atrocity which made for a nice, if disquieting back-up subject. On March … Continue reading The Massacre History Thread
This week’s History Thread keeps with our recent literary focus. We’ll look at Charles Dickens and his journey to the United States, chronicled in his 1842 book American Notes (for General Circulation), which can be found online here. The title … Continue reading A Dickensian History Thread
Welcome to this week’s History Thread! Today we’ll return to our recent looks at famous authors through their political views, personal relationships or lesser-known exploits. Our subject will be Louisa May Alcott, author of Little Women, albeit a different Alcott … Continue reading Louisa May Alcott’s Little History Thread
Welcome to this week’s History Thread! Unfortunately, I’ve been under the weather the past few days so I didn’t have time or energy to work on the header I planned for today. Instead, let’s preview some possible future history-themed threads … Continue reading The History Thread Sees the Future
Welcome to another literary-themed History Thread! This week we’ll look at Bram Stoker, author of Dracula and his relationships with prominent Americans of his time. (I dug a little into Stoker’s politics and found that he was an Irish Protestant … Continue reading The History Thread, or Bram Stoker’s American Friends
Welcome to this week’s History Thread! Since we’ve been exploring the politics of well-known American authors in recent threads, I wanted to take a slightly different track by highlighting a lesser-known writer from the 19th Century. Specifically Edith Maude Eaton … Continue reading The Spring Fragrance History Thread
The History Thread returns with another look at the politics of a Classic American Writer – in this case, Herman Melville. The author of Moby-Dick is more like Edgar Allan Poe than Nathaniel Hawthorne (who was Melville’s close friend, and … Continue reading A Whale of a History Thread
